Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Treatment

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA, is a type of bacteria (S. aureus) that has become resistant to the typical drugs used to treat the infections caused by it. This variety of S. auerus is not only resistant to methicillin, as the name states, but also usually resistant to penicillin, oxaxillin, amoxicillin and sometimes tetracycline, erythromycin and clindamycin. Because the bacteria have become resistant to so many of the common medications to treat it, treatment is becoming more difficult, but no less necessary.

Test It

• The best way to know what medication to use to treat a MRSA infection is to use microbiological lab testing to determine what antibiotics it may be susceptible to. The downside to this is that laboratory testing can take time to complete, while the patient gets sicker. However, this is the best way to be certain you're targeting the infection with the appropriate drug to kill it. Once testing is completed, MRSA is usually treated with the drug that it's most susceptible to, alone or in combination with other drugs.

Finish All Medication

• Doctors always tell patients to take medication for a specified length of time. This advice is given because it takes a certain level of medication in the body for a certain period of time to kill bacteria. When the medication is stopped early, it only kills off the weaker bacteria, leaving the stronger ones that needed a longer time to kill still alive. Not only are these stronger bacteria not killed, but they have been exposed to the antibiotics so that they can begin to develop resistance to them. This is the process that creates the "superbugs." It always important to take all of the medication you're prescribed, but even more so with bacteria that are already becoming resistant to drugs quickly.

Drain the Infection

• Since most MRSA infections are skin infections, they have topical symptoms, including abscesses, which can be treated in topical ways in addition to antibiotics. The first option for abscesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control, is to make an incision and drain them. There are also certain topical antibiotics that are effective against MRSA, though resistance to them is growing as well.